In busy American households, one of the most common cooking activities is browning of ground beef, turkey, lamb, or chicken for use in various dishes from sloppy Joe's, to tacos, to spaghetti sauces, and countless others. Browning the ground meat is a simple process of separating the lumped ground meat as it cooks in a skillet into successively smaller conglomerations. However, the process is often easier said than done, since ground meat is typically moist and fatty and therefore very sticky, tending to rejoin even as a cook attempts to separate it with a spoon or spatula. As a result, many cooks resort to using a pair of tools, for example two forks or two spatulas in separate hands to pull the ground meat apart as it cooks. This process works but it also doubles the number of tools for cleanup and requires use of both hands, preventing cooks from holding their skillets in place as they work through the meat.
In partial solution of the problem, some meat-separating devices, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,732,616 and sold under the ChopStir name, have been marketed with some success. The ChopStir device is a one-handed four-bladed tool, with the blades being of equal length and spaced equally around the end of a long handle to define a cross-like configuration. Notably, the equal length of the blades dictates that cooks operate the tool in a substantially vertical up and down motion to ensure full contact of the 4 blades with the ground meat.
The present inventors recognize at least one problem with the ChopStir and other similar multi-bladed devices. The problem is that these tools are ineffective for turning the ground meat over as it cooks and for lifting the meat out of a skillet when done cooking. At best, they allow users to clumsily push the browned meat around and toward the edge of the cooking pan or skillet, and perhaps over the edge on to a plate or bowl. As a result, cooks are required to use a separate serving tool to efficiently remove their browned meat from the cooking pan, not only lengthening meal preparation times, but also adding to clean up.
Accordingly, the present inventors have recognized a need for improved kitchen hand tools to work with ground meat.